Trilogy Fatigue

My first experience of what I call “Trilogy Fatigue” was while writing what will soon be published as the Angelwar trilogy. I wrote it over three years, my first foray into a trilogy, and my first experience of writing and living with the same group of characters for an extended period. By the early stages of Book 3, trilogy fatigue had set it. I had ideas – lots of shiny ideas – and like a magpie I was drawn to them. But… there was still a story to finish, still a story to tell. Sure, it’s possible to leave it and return a year later, but I was never sure whether the book would suffer for it: would my writing style be vastly different, would I keep finding other projects and leave this unfinished? I took the safe path, and stuck with the manuscript, writing the whole trilogy back to back and I’m glad I did because it felt like so much more of an accomplishment when it was finally complete.

And now, in the midst of final edits and revisions, trilogy fatigue has struck again. Probably, I think, at around the same point in the trilogy. There have been long nights after work, and busy weekends, and now I can feel the early stages of burnout. But I’m into Book 3, on the home strait. Just a little longer and this phase of the project will be complete. And that, I think, will be a good feeling, and the knowledge that at the end of this journey I’ll have 3 books released in paperback and e-book is another incentive. It’s time to have a quiet word with myself, and get back to work because I’m close enough to my initial schedule this whole thing is still possible, still achievable. And if I can do that, I know that accomplishing this will mean so much more to me when I finally see the book and it goes on sale.

About A.J. Grimmelhaus

A.J. Grimmelhaus is a Fantasy author based in Cambridge, England. His father read The Hobbit to him when he was three years old and later took him to see the original Star Wars trilogy in a single epic showing. He has been hooked on Fantasy and Science Fiction ever since.

He enjoys short walks to the pub and Venn diagrams, which he often uses in inappropriate situations. He is more than happy to illustrate this through a Venn diagram.